


Cobalt Mutant

by vanishedSchism



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Sadstuck, Sollux with a Lisp, karbot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-26
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-24 16:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/942261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanishedSchism/pseuds/vanishedSchism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Karkat sacrifices himself for the team's benefit, Sollux has some trouble adjusting. His response is to get Equius' help to build Karbot, but that's a bit of a fairytale solution. There's no guarantee that it will work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cobalt Mutant

Sollux --> Wake him up

You need this to work. You've spent too long on this project to fall apart now. Not when you yourself are so close. He won't be exactly the same, you know that, for one, his blood is different. Equius wouldn't allow it to be any other way, and as good as you are with computers, you needed his help with this level of mechanics. You couldn't afford to piss him off.

Still, this was your project, and after setting up the basic hardware, the blue-blooded mechanic respected that and left you to your business in your block. He was the only one you opened trollian for anymore, and then only to ask him about a specific technical problem you were having.  
You had put all your energy into this project, and you couldn't remember the last time you slept or ate a substance that wasn't designed to keep you awake and alert, but you don't care. This is necessary, you have to finish. He'd done so much for you, for the entire group, but for you specifically, this was the least you could do to pay him back.

Finally. Finally. You're done. You're ready to test him out, to enter the last bit of code and watch as weeks of effort are either fruitful or confirmed wasted. You might be grinning a little, it's possible that a thin line of honey drips out of the side of your mouth as you stare at his gleaming chassis. He looks almost like himself, the same frown he had always worn now gracing his metal features. You really think you got it right this time. You check the coding one more time, to make sure everything is as it should be, then enter the last line of code and step back. 

Your breath catches in your throat as his eyes blink open, and his scowl becomes even more prominent as he looks at the blue sign on his chest then glares at you. Oh god how you missed him. … It's not quite him you have to remind yourself, but it's the closest you're going to get. Your voice is small, you're afraid that this is all an illusion that if you speak too loud you'll ruin the spell. 

"Do you work?"

"I'm not doing your fucking laundry if that's what you mean, nookstain. I have more pride than that." He looks with a disapproving eye around the neglected block. Solder and spilled faygo stained the carpet, dirty clothes were tossed in piles and the stale scent of sweat and energy drinks pervaded the air. "Although it looks like you fucking need it."

He was so much like him. At least so far, he was responding exactly like you would have expected your friend to respond. He was perhaps lacking some of his more creative expletives, but maybe that was due to Equius' blood. It didn't matter. Probably. He had to keep reminding himself that this experiment could fail. 

"No, I mean, do you have perthonality. Judgement. Moralth?"

"Oh, that shit? Yeah. I may be a fucking robot, but I still know it's wrong to kill a troll while he's sleeping."

"Memorieth?"

"His you mean?"

You nod. This is the moment of truth. If he says no.. Well, you're not sure you can decommission him, but you'll give up at least. He slowly nods. 

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Even… Even when he…?" You can't make yourself say it. You bite your lip, and taste the thin line of sweetness on your face. 

He seems to get it though. He looks at the ground. "Even that." 

You can't blame him, they can't be good memories. But, you also can't help smiling. You're so giddily happy all of sudden. 

"You're really him. K! I'm tho glad you're back."

"Why? I'm a fucking robot."

"That doethn't matter! Your mind'th the thame. I've alway been more about the mind." You force yourself not to jump up and just crow your victory to the heavens. He's back, he's back, your best friend is back and you feel like and giddy and your pan might be a little foggy..

He frowns at you, then asks, "Are you on your fucking honey? What the hell Sollux, you said you wouldn't touch that shit! Are you seriously so much of a festering bulgenugget that you forgot what happened last time?"

"It helpth me think." You protest. "Thith wathn't eathy coding athhat! It directth my focuth to the complecth problemth."

"I assume, the faygo and other shit littering this room straight out of wiggler's nightmares also help you think? Sollux. Sollux, stop grinning like a fucking idiot and look at me!" He grabs your face, which had been nodding vigorously up until this moment. "You're not thinking straight."

"I think I'm theeing double." The subsequent grin, and entire high really, fades at the stinging slap you just received. You bite your lip. "I jutht wanted you back.."

His expression softens from his furious concern of just a moment before. 

"You know it's not me. For fuck's sake Sollux, I don't even have my blood anymore!" He shoves you away. 

"But you're clothe enough. You have to be."

"Not a fucking bit. I was a mutant."

"And you hated it!" You knew Karkat wasn't going to be happy with the change, but you didn't think it mattered that much. 

"It made you terrified! It made think you weren't good enough for anything." His face changes. You know that expression. He's about to tell you that his thoughts were right. It sends a stab of pain to your vascular pump that he still thinks that, even after everything he did, everything he sacrificed, he still felt like he wasn't good enough. 

"You know that's a fucking lie." You finally say, after a long pause. 

"But it's not. It was the fucking truth. I was a mutant! I was only good to risk my life for all of you."

"You were- are better than all of uth combined. Twithe. You were our leader"

He cracks a wry smile. "You and twos. It hasn't changed." 

"It'th the only thing that hathn't."

"What do you mean?"

You look away. "You know moth of it. The game, that kind of shit, it changeth people. We thaw too much.. or heard or thmelled, whatever. But after your- your thacrifithe, all the loth, we had to adapt. We took over thkillth that weren't ourth, we went on journeyth and then had to fifth each other or break down completely." You pause and look around your disgusting hovel. "Or itholate ourtheveth completely."

Before you know it cool metal arms are wrapped around you, holding you close to a smooth metal chest. 

"I'm sorry," he whispers. 

"N-no, I am. I with I could thay everything wath fine, your thacrifithe wath worth it, we all came out unhurt. Phythically we did…" You're shaking slightly. He's cold, he's not Karkat, you understand that, this isn't your KK, but.. you need him dammit. 

"I still care for you all." He murmurs. "I didn't want to leave you."

"Thometimeth I wish you didn't…" You're so selfish, you know that, but you're exhausted, you watched him die, then completed his quest, then locked yourself in here and shut everyone else out. You just want your friend back.

"None of you would be here if I didn't."

"I know but.. Without you I- I often thought it would be better to go with you. Or inthtead.." Jesus fuck Sollux, he just woke up, you have to lay your emotional shit on him this quickly? Can't you pretend not to be broken for two fucking seconds? Apparently not.. 

"They needed you." You continue. "I did nothing for them."

He just sighs, he knows there's nothing he can say right now, maybe later, but not when your emotions are so exposed and raw, he knows you too well for that. Before you know it, he's shooshing you, and then you feel a much gentler hand on your cheek, but it doesn't matter because he's papping you. 

He pulls you even closer and you wrap your arms around him. "Well I'm here now, and I'm here because of you."

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by an msparp chat with ask-drunkhomestuck.tumblr.com
> 
> I'm considering writing more for this AU, maybe focusing on some other characters as they embark on their various quests and things. Spoiler alert: Karkat is not the first troll to die. 
> 
> Anyway please alert me for any grammar/story issues and tell me what you either like, (or don't) in the comments!
> 
> Also, I know Sollux usually refers to Karkat as KK, when he calls Karbot K, he's acknowledging that the two are different.


End file.
